Under Ugly
by TheWestDriver
Summary: Ruffnut wiped her nose and spat in the dirt. Astrid didn't know what she was talking about. Ruffnut/Astrid femslash.


A/N: Femslash ahoy! I like Astrid/Hiccup, but who doesn't adore the Ruff?

I took some liberties with naming a few dragons, and I honestly couldn't remember which head of the Zippleback was Ruffnut's. If I'm wrong, let me know and I'll change it.

This is a series of five one-shots from Ruff's POV, in chronological order, all several months after the movie ended. They're mostly pre-femslash fluff, nothing angsty or too serious, but I may get to that genre of HTTYD another time. :) Please review for more Ruffrid lovin.

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The screaming, tumbling mass of blonde hair and scales fell through the sky at an alarming rate, caused solely by the fact that Tuffnut was an idiot and his sister had a nasty right hook.

The howling Viking girl struck out with resounding clunk against her brother's helmet, denting the metal so brutally that even Hiccup would have trouble fixing it, and screamed, "I'm gonna kill you!" Tuffnut, although he was loath to admit it, was fairly certain that he was going to die.

"You're just jealous that Astrid's prettier than you!" he screamed back, twisting around the braided necks of their Hideous Zippleback. He lunged for Ruffnut's hair, but found a furry boot beneath the chin was a quick, effective way to block his attack.

"I'm not-" she choked.

The ground rushed up to their faces as they slammed into the dirt from a high altitude, effectively ceasing all argument. Rightie's head coughed up its miasma of lighter fluid, and Leftie groaned out a spark, causing a tiny explosion like the latent after-effects of a meteor falling to Earth.

Ruffnut rolled over, probing her head and back for injuries. If the pain was any indicator, she might get that shoulder scarring she had been dreaming about. A glance to her left revealed the bottom half of her brother sandwiched between their dragon and what she hoped was a bundle of poison ivy. She dragged Tuffnut out from beneath a green dragon leg, grunting with effort, and laid him face up next to a boulder. She kicked him in the ribs, "Wake up, dummy."

Tuffnut mumbled something about being "very much hurt" and wiped some blood from his nose. The Twins saw the red stain and simultaneously murmured, "Cool."

They grinned at each other as she flopped to the ground beside him. Rightie nipped at the leather straps of her skirt, tugging at her for attention. She idly stroked his eyebrow scales.

"It just sucks that Astrid and Hiccup are good-looking," she said. "Like, pass some of that pretty around, you know?"

"I thought you said they were frail like weaklings and babies," said Tuffnut, pulling twigs from his blonde mane. Ruffnut punched his shoulder and he whimpered.

"You weren't listening. I said they were frail like weaklings and babies when they're together, being all mushy-gushy lovey-dovey. Alone they're fine. Astrid's a good fighter and Hiccup's pretty smart, I guess." Ruffnut wiped the dirt from her knees to stand. She looked to the sun and said, "Let's go back to camp. It'll be dark soon."

"Maybe we'll find another Night Fury!"

"Maybe Toothless will eat you, stupid," she growled. "Let's go."

The Twins mounted Leftie and Rightie, scrambling for their harnesses as they situated themselves. Tuffnut looked over to his sister, "But Astrid is still way prettier than you."

Barring her teeth, Ruffnut gave a look that would strike fear into the hearts of the staunchest Viking Lords. Tuffnut shrunk in his saddle, remembering the fist-sized indentation in his helmet. Once she was satisfied that he was docile, she lifted her gaze from him and settled again on her own slouching form.

"Yeah, she is," she mumbled.

As she felt the beating of their Zippleback's wings rising again for home, Ruffnut wondered why sometimes Astrid bothered her.

* * *

"Well, maybe if you cut it, you wouldn't have to worry about it catching on fire!" screamed Astrid.

"Well, maybe if you watched my back like you said you would, I wouldn't smell like burning hair!" Ruffnut screamed back.

They lunged after each other as their dragons watched from the outer perimeter of the training ground, well aware that interrupting a human girl fight was a one-way ticket to getting clawed. This was the first time in their history that a humans vs. dragons training match had ended in a human vs. human brawl.

Ruffnut flipped Astrid out of the headlock she'd used to trap the taller girl, then roughly kneed her in the stomach. Astrid headbutted, momentarily stunning both fighters as they stumbled away from each other.

They recuperated and charged back again twice as hard.

Twisting arm locks and punches followed tackles and chokes, but neither Ruffnut nor Astrid was willing to stop. The ferocity of the scuffle showed no signs of weakening, although both girls sported swollen lips and eyes. After a moment of watching limbs tangle beyond recognition, Leftie and Rightie finally intervened, firmly taking Astrid and Ruffnut into their dragon jaws. Astrid's Deadly Nadder, Rupert, stood between them, roaring in a way reminiscent of an angry mother.

The humans panted, glaring at each other from the horrifying maw of a Hideous Zippleback.

"Ugh, fine!" yelled Astrid. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you better, but you have a two-headed dragon! He came around the back."

Ruffnut pouted her lips, not entirely pleased with the forced apology, but Rightie tightened his grip and she shouted, "Jeez, all right! I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'm just really sensitive about my hair and now it's fried."

The girls were placed back on the ground surrounded by wide-eyed dragons. They had just made more progress with their humans than the two scrappy girls normally allowed.

"Why are you sensitive about your hair? It's still longer than anyone else's."

Ruffnut shuffled her feet in the training ground dust, kicking up a small cloud. She said, "It's my favorite part about me… because, it's not… like, ugly."

Astrid furrowed her brow. She surveyed the eyes of the Viking girl opposite her, and cracked her knuckles before she spoke again. The dragons stood like stone monuments around them, silent and looming.

"You're not ugly," she said.

With one quick motion, Astrid mounted her dragon and rode out of the ring without turning back to Ruffnut.

She watched her teammate leave without a word, blinking exactly fifteen times before making another move. Then Ruffnut wiped her nose and spat in the dirt.

Astrid didn't know what she was talking about.

* * *

"Where'd you get the ale?" asked Fishlegs, sniffing about the rim of his mug like it contained poison of the highest degree. He spoke to his friends at the table, turning to Hiccup, Tuffnut, and Snotlout in turn. "I don't think our parents would like this very much."

Hiccup nodded from his place at his thick wooden stool, "My dad asked around and everybody got the go-ahead. He said it was about time we learned the finer arts of Viking life." His cheeks glowed red above a vacant smile.

The adults in the room stole surreptitious glances at the younger kids' table in the great dining hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of their children doing something entertaining during their first bout with alcohol. They loved Viking traditions.

Tuffnut swung his arm- sloshing his ale by extension- around Hiccup; addressing Fishlegs, he said, "His dad's just trying to get him over Astrid."

Hiccup's smile faltered, but didn't disappear, "I think it's helping! Ale is good."

From across the hall, Ruffnut watched Astrid's head lean toward the boy's table. "They only separated us because they're afraid Hic's gonna make a fool of hisself."

Astrid Hofferson was very, very drunk. She continued, conspiratorially slurring to Ruffnut, "He liked me a lot more than I liked him, I think." She downed another swig of ale, not noticing their mothers laughing two tables over.

Ruffnut, who was seeing double of everything, addressed the Astrid on the left, "You're really drunk, Astrid. Better not let Hiccup come over here, or you'll be putting on a show for the whole village." She snorted, "That'd be awesome."

"Naw," Astrid slurred. "We're totally done! And… and… you! You've always had a thing for Hiccup. Go after that!" She rested her hand on Ruffnut's thigh and leaned over the bench they shared, ale-breath ghosting across Ruffnut's face. It didn't seem to repulse her as much as she thought it should.

Ruffnut shook her head and had to steady herself before she toppled over. She put her hands on Astrid's, not noticing that it looked very much like they were about to kiss.

"I'm not into Hiccup anymore," Ruffnut said. "He's nice, but… but," she snickered. "I could never date a guy that couldn't beat me in a fight."

Astrid threw her hands in the air, "Oh, I know! I want a good fight!" They turned their conversation to war, easily forgetting the strange, drunken comfort they'd felt together.

From the boys' table, Snotlout said, "Were Astrid and Ruffnut kissing just now?" And in one swift motion, Tuffnut and Hiccup punched him in the face.

* * *

"They're all so small that they look like babies," complained Tuffnut. "How are we supposed to know the newborns from the other ones?" He poked at the palm-sized egg at his feet until Astrid slapped his hand away.

"Don't do that. We're not supposed to help them with the shell so they'll be strong enough to survive when they get out. We're just counting the new Terrible Terrors that hatch. At least we didn't get stuck with the Nightmares like Snotlout."

Ruffnut laughed, "His fingers are toast." Tuffnut high-fived his sister and went back to staring at the eggs in the dragon's nest. A slew of Terrible Terrors crawled over the spotted casings, breathing fire here or there to warm their babies.

"Whadda we do when they hatch?"

"Stoick said we can play with them if their moms let us," Ruffnut said. She was not particularly thrilled about the prospect of having her hands munched by baby dragons, but Stoick was hoping to tame them so they weren't afraid of humans. It was very difficult to train a young Viking with a frightened, wild dragon that couldn't learn to trust what it saw as a meaty snack.

A crack resounded through the rocky gorge on the northern side of Berk.

Ruffnut and Astrid immediately located the first hatchling, crawled down to egg level, and didn't make a sound. Tuffnut tumbled backwards, yelling, "WHADDA WE DO?"

Astrid violently hushed him, but Ruffnut stage whispered, "Get outta here! Go tell Fishlegs the Terrors are hatching. He wanted to see them." She didn't watch him scramble back to the village, hair whipping behind him like a flag in a tornado.

The first baby poked a tiny, horned nose through his shell, squeaking like a kitten at the new smells. Ruffnut didn't think her eyes could get any wider.

His head popped out next, then a wing, but his other wing had a bit more trouble. Ruffnut saw Astrid restrain herself from helping, gripping her hands into a tight fist. They watched the baby dragon come into the world, sneezing lightly when he caught their scent.

They giggled.

The girls, Astrid and Ruffnut, who would not be caught dead wearing a dress or picking flowers or wearing makeup, giggled like children at the newborn Terror. As soon as they noticed the other, they blushed at the same time.

The Terror crawled up to Ruffnut, ignoring the licking from his curious mother, and nipped at the tip of her nose. She turned to Astrid with a goofy, lopsided grin on her face and saw that Astrid's own mouth was twisted into a smile of exquisite sweetness.

The look on her friend's face curiously distracted her from the baby dragon persistently trying to climb her arm. Ruffnut took her a moment to find her scratchy voice, "Can we call him Nipper?"

Astrid said reverently, "Ruff, look. He wants you to hold him."

Nipper nudged her with his scaly head, asking for a new perch for his tired little body. He lightly clawed at her armor until Ruffnut picked him up, gently wrapping him in her arms. Astrid sighed softly and stroked the delicate skin of his wings. She looked back up to her hatchling-duty partner and smiled.

The two of them stood together, baby cradled between them, and Ruffnut thought that the whole thing was sort of beautiful.

* * *

"I mean, I guess I like flowers," said Ruffnut, eyeing the chain of daisies suspiciously. She inspected every petal, eyes peeled for overt daintiness and other signs of puny Viking behavior. "It's just that they _want_ us to like flowers, so I really _don't_ want to like them, you know?"

"I know," Astrid nodded. "They're nice to look at, though. And usually they smell good, or better than the boys we hang around." She chuckled and wove another link into the flower chain. "I'm thinking of training the dragons to drop them in the sea when they get too stinky, which is mainly all the time."

Ruffnut assented with an impish snort. Her fingers tied the stems together much slower than Astrid's, and she continuously watched the other girl to make sure she wasn't doing it wrong. Once or twice she'd ripped the flower in half, but Astrid always handed her another one and said a few words of encouragement. She said it took her full two days to learn to weave flower chains from her mother, but Ruffnut figured she was exaggerating to make her feel better, especially considering how deftly she could turn a bunch of daisies into a necklace.

Not paying attention, Ruffnut snapped another stem between her fingers. "Dang it! I did it again," she said forlornly, hating when she failed at a task, even one as pathetic as plant-weaving.

And Astrid, instead of handing her another daisy, leaned over their pile of flower chains and kissed her square on the lips. She pulled back slowly, hands now moved to a stationary position in her lap, halting the constant manufacture of the necklaces.

Her nose and cheeks burned bright pink, but Astrid's eyes locked unabashedly with Ruffnut's. "Did you come out here to make daisy necklaces or spend time with me?" she asked.

Ruffnut, whose heart rate and amazement level were very high, only responded, "You."

The other girl smiled brightly. "All right." She continued weaving, "Good."

So they sat on the sunny forest floor together for a few minutes before Ruffnut took a quick appraisal of her surroundings, gathering her jumbled thoughts. She looked at the butchered necklace in her hands, at the pile of flowers beside them, at the still-blushing Astrid, and back to the arts and crafts abomination she held.

She remembered the warmth of Astrid's lips and grinned. Ruffnut threw the flowers on the ground where they belonged, then blatantly stared at the blonde.

"I'm tired of playing with daisies," Ruffnut grumbled.

Astrid's eyebrow rose as she looked up from beneath her bangs. "Really? Me too," she said.

They both smiled and the daisy chains were long forgotten in the grass.

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End file.
